“Just staggered you”: Dave Grohl on how Bad Brains destroyed everything in their path
Whenever he’s turned his hand to a musical project, Dave Grohl has always done it with power. From the heady days of Nirvana right up to his leadership of the Foo Fighters, his performance both in and out of the studio has always been a sweat-soaked extravaganza of all-out rock and roll.
With his long black hair, roughly cut beard and tattoo-clad arms usually adorn by an all-black get-up, he cuts the traditional figure of a rock-worshipping headbanger, largely due to the fact he simply is one. He makes no bones about his adoration for the forefathers of rock and wastes no time trying to cement his own legacy by playing the aloof, unimpressed genius. Instead, he jumps at any opportunity to geek out over the powers of his contemporaries.
While, like many, Grohl’s adoration extended into the realms of global stardom, with the likes of the Ramones, Led Zeppelin and The Beatles, the truth is he emerged from a healthy Washington DC scene that provided all the fruits of influence right on his doorstep.
It was a city bursting at the seams with disillusioned youth who formed punk bands ready to rip the walls off of all the live venues the city had to offer. One of these was Bad Brains, a hardcore punk four-piece that destroyed everything in its wake. In fact, some of their shows were so raucous that they received unofficial bans from several of the city’s live venues.
When you take a closer look at the ban, it’s rather symptomatic of the socio-political state of America. While their shows were pushing decibel limits, the sentiment of their music was far from hazardous. Unsurprisingly, a hardcore punk group of four black men is enough to raise American eyebrows despite the fact that their music was centred around PMA (positive mental attitude) and Rastafarian beliefs, which mainly aligned with nonviolence.
The cultural influence of the band was such that the response to the ban was more violent than the performances themselves. Devoted fans were so furious that it was rumoured fights broke out, while some fans broke toilets, and the others smashed inventory behind bars. Of those disgruntled fans would have undoubtedly stood Grohl, who cites the band as one of his all-time pillars of influence.
He said: “Bad Brains are one of those bands where everyone who’s ever heard them live has come away with a real extreme reaction, one of either love or hate. I loved ’em. The fact that there were four black guys coming on to a predominately white scene that they then just surpassed and absolutely destroyed with everything they did; just staggered you.”
At the kernel of Bad Brains’ artistic idea was positive chaos. While their own expression of that may have got lost in the midst of their storm, it made an indelible impression on Grohl, who repurposed that idea and helped mould it into something bigger. Yes, Grohl has mastered the art of radio-friendly dad-rock, but you can’t argue his mission has also been to incite something chaotic yet positive. ‘Everlong’ and ‘Monkey Wrench’ aren’t just inspiring rock epic’s pulled from thin air, no they were forged in the fires sparked by Bad Brains.
